Otome Katou
Otome Katou (加藤 乙女 Katō Otome?) is a secondary character in School Days and Summer Days. She is Kotonoha's classmate, and Makoto's friend since childhood. Otome plays for the basketball team, and is the de facto leader of class 1-4's girls. She is responsible for the bullying that Kotonoha endures. She also makes an appearance in Cross Days. Appearance Otome is a girl of average height with brown eyes and medium length brown hair tied into a ponytail. She is quite petite in appearance but has a wide hip, with only Setsuna Kiyoura being smaller than her in bust department. Being a basketball player her body is mentioned to be fit. Being a bully, she's mentioned to have beat up Hanon Nijou when she mistook her for fancying Makoto. Otome is mostly seen in her school uniform and basketball uniform. During summer, Otome dresses in more casual clothing with green shirt of fiery design and a jean, exposing her midriff, also with a pink-orange cloth tied around her waist. She wears a red-white hoodie with short blue jeans during the events of Island Days. Personality Direct and headstrong, she is usually authoritative to her peers, tolerates nothing but her way and opinion, and does not generally associate with anyone but her trio of friends Minami Obuchi, Natsumi Koizumi and Kumi Mori; who together frequently harass and coerce Kotonoha. Most of her aggressive and moody personality seems to stem from her family's problems: her father is a womanizer, her mother keeps threatening to kill any women who cheats with him, and her general hatred toward women who seduce men, like Hanon Nijou. She also has a complex over her smaller bust size when compared to Kotonoha or her sister. Though Otome isn't stable, she is a very athletic tomboy in general, playing and being very good at many sports. Despite her difficult behavior and intimidating personality however, Otome is a tsundere who can be particularly tender and shy, especially around Makoto, who she has known since junior high school and has a crush on. She even studies hard to make sure she can get into the same school as Makoto, though she gets in a different class. Otome is very boyish and felt that Makoto only saw her as 'one of the guys.' She tries to be more feminine so he can see her as a girl. However if Otome does make Makoto her boyfriend, she's still her normal outspoken self and not shy anymore. School Days The Visual Novel Otome's acts of bullying Kotonoha can be seen through all of the routes including her own. She believes that Kotonoha is using her body to seduce all the men in her presence and therefore Otome believes that her bullying is justified. Furthermore, while she rarely ever was physically abusive to Kotonoha, she could be easily convinced to become such without much question as she feels no guilt for any pain, physical or emotional, that Kotonoha suffers. Otome is even the main reason for Taisuke raping Kotonoha (apart from Taisuke himself not being able to control his lust) by giving malicious advice; she tells Taisuke that Kotonoha's a virgin and that she wants to have sex but is too self-conscious and shy to admit it. With this "advice", Taisuke rapes her on the assumption that it's what she desires. Like Sekai, Otome has liked Makoto for a long time and is mentioned to have expressed her desire to date him before, though it was only ever taken by Makoto as a joke. Even though she and Makoto are childhood friends, it's stated several times that they are not hanging out anymore, possibly because Otome felt her feelings for him made being with him awkward, as evidenced by how shy she becomes around him. This disconnect and lack of familiarity with each-other's current personalities shows most noticeably in how Makoto is unaware Otome is the one leading the bullying against Kotonoha. Even when Makoto finds out about the bullying in some of the routes, he's still convinced that she's mostly innocent and just following the rest of her group's actions. Likewise, Otome quickly becomes ashamed of herself after finding out Makoto so strongly disapproves of the bullying and believed her to be above it, with remorse possibly being a factor that keeps her from perusing Makoto afterwords. In all versions of Episode 4 (The school festival) of the visual novel, Otome tries to approach Makoto with the intention of asking to date him, but it doesn't go beyond simply seeing the festival together. In a rare case where Sekai and Kotonoha are both busy, Makoto asks her to see the festival, much to her surprise and happiness. Makoto choosing Otome happens much later though, after the school festival. See Otome's Ending for more details. Anime In the anime, she works up her courage to ask Makoto to the folk dance in the episode, After Evening Festival. She then invites Makoto to a break room to have sex with him. She's only seen kissing Makoto but, because the anime skips the H-scenes, its implied they slept together. She and Setsuna are the pair of secondary female love interests. While not featured as prominently as Kotonoha and Sekai, they come directly afterward and, unlike Hikari and Nanami, they are only attracted to Makoto and not other guys like Taisuke and Kyoichi. Summer/Shiny Days During the events of Summer/Shiny Days, Otome helps with her family in the preparation for the summer festival at the Haramihama Shrine. Through the help of her sister Karen, Otome will try to arrange for Makoto to help through the Youth Association in order for him to spend more time with her. Her rivalry with Ai Yamagata is also revealed since both have had feelings for him since middle school, and Otome will try to prevent the latter from spending time with Makoto during the festival. While she doesn't have her exclusive endings, she shares one with her little sister Karen. In the ending Becoming Part of the Family, Otome discovers Makoto's in a relationship with Karen and becomes sad. Karen then has Otome confess her feelings to Makoto and they have sex, which Karen also decides to join them in. Unfortunately, Otome accidentally pulls the blanket that was hiding their actions and they're seen by the entire Katou family, which leads to Makoto getting beat up by them - though apparently he's still allowed to date the girls afterword. Cross Days Relationships The Trio She does not generally associate with anyone but her trio of friends. They're frequently seen discussing rumors and talking about boys, and also how to frequently harass and coerce Kotonoha. Makoto Makoto is a former classmate of hers from middle school and they used to hang out all the time. Unknown to Makoto, she's had feelings for him for a long time. In Shiny Days, it is revealed by Karen that Otome joined basketball club on Makoto's suggestion. She has expressed her desire to date Makoto before but he dismissed it as a joke, making her "friendzoned" by him. Even though they don't hang out anymore, they're still very close as far as trusting one-another and can literally spend an entire night talking to each other on the phone. If Makoto and Otome end up dating, they're frequently seen arguing but it's explained by Natsumi Koizumi.to be just the nature of their relationship, due to Otome's outspoken personality. Karen Otome's younger sister, who appears in Summer Days and its remake. Ai Yamagata Otome's friend and rival for Makoto's affection since high school. In spite of a cordial friendship between them, their rivalry can escalate to a dangerous level - even as far as murder, as seen during the events of Island Days. Trivia *Her birthday and surname are derived from Katō Tomosaburō. *Her given name "Otome" means "maiden". Ironically, her very athletic and boyish personality contrasts this meaning. *Her seiyuu, Haruka Nagami, also voiced Asagi Inou in Snow Radish Vacation and Youko Saionji (known at that time as Youko Inou) in Summer Radish Vacation. *She is the only heroine to not get pregnant in any routes in the original School Days Game. *While almost all the characters are somehow related to each other at least distantly, Otome's family (at least thus far) is one of the only ones that isn't, with the only other one being (ironically) the family of the girl she regularly bullies; Kotonoha. Gallery Katou.jpg CellKatou.jpg|Katou is on the basketball team with Nanami. OpeningKatou.jpg WideEyes.jpg Droopy.jpg KatouTrio.jpg|With the trio in episode 3 TrioKatou.jpg Makoto otome.jpg|In her ending Otome Katou Zero.jpg Otome Katou 03.jpg Otome Katou 2.jpg Otome Katou 4.jpg Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Katous Category:Older sisters Category:School Days characters Category:Summer Days characters Category:Cross Days characters Category:Shiny Days characters